Ever wonder why your cat sleeps all day but suddenly finds your toes, ears, and every toy in the house to be the most amusing thing ever as soon as you are ready to go to bed? Or do you find yourself sleeping with one eye open to because your cat pounces on anything moving under the covers? Or how about getting your ankles chased if you get up at night? If you’re wondering why your cat wakes you up at night and how to get your cat on the same sleep schedule as you, you’re not alone. Why Your Cat Won’t Let You Sleep at Night Often, it seems like cats are just out of sync with our wake/sleep cycles—and indeed, this is the case. By nature, humans are diurnal, which means we are awake during the day and asleep at night. You may think that cats must be nocturnal, but that isn’t exactly the case. Cats are what is known as crepuscular. Crepuscular animals tend to be most active during the late evenings and early mornings—so just as we are winding down, they are winding up. This is the peak time that cats prefer to play, hunt, and do all their basic activities. In the wild, this is also the time when many of their prey animals (such as rodents) are waking up and starting to move around, so it is the perfect time for a predator (like your cat) to be up and hunting. Many domesticated cats have retained these behaviors. As a rule, cats will sleep 18 hours per day, spread over a series of naps that average 78 minutes each. They sleep during the day as well as in the middle of the night, only to get up and become active right when we are heading to bed, and again shortly before we want to get up. This can be a definite clash! So how can you get your cat on a more compatible schedule so that you can get some sleep?